Battlestar Galactica - Exodus

I played a game of Battlestar with the Exodus expansion.  The characters were: Starbuck, Tom Zarek, Cally, and Felix Gaeta.  There are some significant changes with Exodus which greatly changed the way the game works.  We played with the Cylon base, Personal agendas, and Final Five.  We didn't bother with a sympathizer, there would be only one cylon.

The very first event out, which we failed, prevented anyone from viewing other's Loyalty Cards.  Starbuck wanted this to fail and Zarek seemed to agree with it.  I immediately suspected a potential cylon among my compatriots.  My analysis was wrong, as both of them had a Final Five card, and therefore didn't want their loyalty questioned.  However, not used to these changes in the game, I continued to suspect a cylon.

First order of business: repairing the Mark VII's.  By the time Starbuck arrives, all of them are available.

At this point I'd like to express my initial disappointment in the cylon board.  Yes, the cylon's attacked, but their  attacks were weak and disorganized.  Starbuck chewed through whatever raiders appeared, and the Galactica's main guns obliterated the Basestar.  So, far, not impressed with the cylon board.  One card, which we couldn't succeed at, executed Cally.  She was replaced by Tyrol.

A few strategies became very apparent.  First, escorting all the civilian ships off the board is a bad idea.  Starbuck did this once, and the raiders immediately attacked the Galactica, inflicting damage through sheer numbers.  Second, the Communications office becomes critical and receives much more attention.  A typical turn would go as follows:

1) Three Civilian Ships appear on the board,
2) Starbuck Executive Orders Zarek, who is in the Communications.  Zarek moves the two civvies to Starbuck's location.
3) Zarek Executive Orders Starbuck, who then escorts two civvies off the board.

If we need to escort 3 ships, Starbuck (who is CAG), uses the CAG ability to have on ship escort 1 ship and still has 2 actions left (CAG ability gives one raider activation and an action).  Starbuck can then escort two more civvies.  Very quickly we could vacate the entire area of civilian ships.

Lo, I'm the Cylon!
The build up of the fleet on the cylon board continued.  About the third or fourth time they make an appearance, it is swarming with ships.  We blast the ships.  Cylon Raider parts are scattered in space by Starbuck, Heavy raiders fall to the Big Guns, and a nuke launch (with Strategic planning) annihilates a basestar and its escorts.  When Galactica jumps, the cylon fleet appears to not be a threat.  The Galactical did take damage, although we did the best to repair it.  Often it would seem we would repair a system only to have it get hit again.  Visiting the sickbay due to Galactica blasts became a hobby.

At the halfway mark the Loyalty cards are dealt out and I find out I'm the cylon!  That threw me for a loop as I really suspected Starbuck (escorting all civvie ships?  Suspicious.  Promoting not looking at loyalty cards?  Suspicious.)

Looking at the resource dials I'm amazed at how incredibly well we are doing.  The lowest dial is on 7, and population is practically untouched.  Yep, it's going to be a long haul.  I determine I can't win through the basic "drain them of resources", I'm going to go through the destroy Galactica route.

At this point I want to point out another wonderful addition to the game: the Consequences cards.  The Consequences actions had come to our rescue several times in the past.  It is one of the major reasons our resources were so high.  However, as a hidden Cylon I added several Consequence cards to great effect.  One was a Green 0, where no green was needed.  I also added to additional cards which drove the final score to -1.  Woohoo!  Morale is -1!  Just 8 more to go!  Even as a Cylon I managed to manipulate the Consequence skill cards once or twice to negatively impact the crew.  A few times it did backfire.

I manage as a hidden cylon for one full turn before my cover is irretrievably discovered.  They humans are too busy fixing galactica, but Starbuck is onto me after Zarek's skill check.  I decide it is time to bug out and send Starbuck to the brig.  Timing was fortuitous, as the Launch Bay is shot to pieces and she won't launch immediately.  My Supercrisis is a doozy for the CAG: either lose some civvie ships or be executed.  I realize the damage Starbuck has done earlier, and hope she chooses execution.  She does and is replaced by Lee Adama.

Lee Adama is good, but he is no Starbuck.  Civilian ships are lost faster than the humans can escort them.  The Mark VII's become damaged.

From here I spend my time either on the new Cylon board: adding ships, activating fleets from the main board (when they arrive), and once or twice I did the crisis search.  Quickly the damage mounts on Galactica.  The humans manage to fend them off and repair her, but the resources dip into the Red.  The Galactica makes it to  distance 8, and it becomes a race to finish off Galactica before they jump again.

One lone unmanned viper stands between my raiders and two civilians.  Galactica is severely damaged.  I activate the Raiders, in huge numbers now.  The proud viper pilot dodges left, dodges right, dodges up, but to no avail.  The last Vipers is damaged and the vipers close on the civilians.  Population, for the longest time the must expendable resource, drops to 1.  The final civilian ship is flipped, and its the big population carrier, two population is lost.  The humans lose after a great battle.

Final Thoughts
Exodus adds great options for both the cylons and the humans.  Executing Starbuck was critical to my success.  Having her as a CAG was brutal.  She annihilated raiders left and right, took potshots at basestars, destroyed heavy raiders.  A real menace.  When she voluntarily executed herself,I could then focus on destroying Galactica.  I didn't succeed in that plan, but the continuous damage inflicted on her kept the humans busy while their civilian ships gradually dwindled.

I took two pics (with a poor phone camera), which I've included here.

A cylon happy sight:

Yep, every one of the vipers was damaged.  First time I've seen that.

End condition.  Look at all those pretty raiders around those civilian ships.  I consider this a lucky win as next turn the humans were going to jump to victory.

Battlestar Galactica - Pegasus

Today I'm going to post about one of my favorite games "Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game" (BSG for short).  Normally, a game based off a movie or show is usually less than stellar.  Everyone once in a while one will rise to the rank of "ok".  BSG is incredible in that it captures the tenseness of the show, the gritty fatalism, and the need to fight against that struggle.  There is also a sense of rising paranoia and, if you are a cylon, the dread that maybe they figured you out before your plans come to fruition.

I had the joy of playing two games of BSG at a convention recently, one with the Pegasus expansion and one with the Exodus expansion.  This is about the Pegasus version.

# Players: 7
Characters: Gaius Baltar(President), Saul Tigh(Admiral), Karl "Helo" Agathon, Cylon Leader Cavil, Anastasia "Dee" Dualla, Ellen Tigh, Starbuck
I was Ellen Tigh

Pegasus - Early Game
We found out after the game there were no cylons in the first half and the Cylon Leader wanted a Human victory (but with low resources).  As such, it went fairly well for the humans.  The cylon leader infiltrated the ship, and later executed himself.  Starbuck did what Starbuck does: eliminate cylon ships, and Ellen Tigh went to Pegasus for the Engine Room, ensuring there was a jump prep symbol on the card..

Crisis cards ate away at our resources quickly.  It would be nice to say that Ellen Tigh did a useful job, but it seems whenever she was XO'ed, or she did her Engine action, the card had a prep symbol (only once do I remember this not being the case).  So the game quickly progressed to the Second half.

We encountered several cylon attack cards along the way, but whenever Starbuck was in trouble Ellen was XO'ed to fire the Pegasus Main Batteries or the Pegasus canons. In Short, with Pegasus there, the Cylons would appear and promptly get torn to shreds.  "Dee" was executed via a crisis card, but no one seemed to miss her, and she was replaced by "Chief" Tyrol.

When attacking a basestar, the Pegasus damaged herself, twice: once in the Engine Room and once in the Airlock.

Pegasus - Late Game
I found out I was a Cylon!  Baltar was sent to the Brig, but used his special once-per-game action to look at Helo's cards and announced Helo was a cylon.  I now knew it had to be one of the two of them.  Accusations flew.  With Baltar in the brig, his power was neutralized if he was cylon.  I decided I had to spring him when it came my turn.

By a stroke of luck Helo's skill check succeeded, but with four negative cards.  Helo threw in three cards, the only player that did so (I admit, I threw in two negative cards), and everyone else threw in two or one card except for Gauis.  Gaius now had enough circumstantial evidence to get himself out of the brig successfully, the Humans had few cards in their hands to stop him if desired, and I had horded a my cards as best I could to get him out.

The round went ok for the humans with everyone out there.  Helo's turn saw a failed check, with two red cards turning the tide of the failed check (I imagine they came from the Destiny deck).  Baltar had throw in no cards.  So, with all the "evidence" piled against him, I XO'ed Baltar, who immediately travelled to Pegasus and repaired the Airlock.  Starbuck took her turn shooting cylon raiders, and then Gaius tossed Helo out the airlock.  When it was revealed Baltar was a cylon, I announced I'd royally screwed up and begged forgiveness.  Helo was replaced by Lee Adama, but it was too late.

Resources continued to drop dangerously low.  All the scales were reading 2 or less when the jump to eight was made.  This occurred on the Cavis turn, and it was too late.  A crisis card came up which would cause a loss of morale if failed.  The humans tried to prevent it, but it happened.  They were doomed even if they succeeded as my turn was coming up and I had a morale reduction special ability.

Pegasus Tactics
Pegasus really changes the game.  The ship itself is a cylon killing machine.  I would almost recommend focusing on killing the Pegasus as a revealed cylon.  It's firepower is overwhelming and potentially pilots are almost unnecessary.

Executing people to determine loyalty may sound like a good idea, but in a large group game that means a loss of potentially 5 morale.  In a smaller game it seems Pegasus would allow executions without major repercussions: 2 morale loss maximum to know the loyalty of every player seems acceptable losses to me.  In a large game, doing it when your sure of the loyalty is one thing, doing it when your uncertain is not.  Therefore, I'm holding judgement on that aspect of the game for a few more plays.

The Treachery cards had a small impact on the game.  They were crucial for airlocking people (Ellen is the only human to collect Treachery cards, and the only player collecting treachery cards in our game).  The only one which seemed to come into play often was the "Basestar" card.  Just luck of the draw there, I guess.  The Reckless skill cards did make an appearance once or twice, but they did not impact the core game play dramatically.

In all, Pegasus definitely adds some power for both the unrevealed cylon players and the humans.  I look forward to playing it again, but I would like to hear some comments on the overall impression from other people.